different between chryselephantine vs elephant

English

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ??????????????? (khruselephántinos), from ?????? (khrusós, “gold”) + ??????????? (elephántinos, “of ivory”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k??s?l??fænt?n/

Adjective

chryselephantine (not comparable)

1. Made of gold and ivory.
   • 1885: I drew near and perceived that the light came from a precious stone as big as an ostrich egg, set at the upper end of the alcove upon a little chryselephantine couch of ivory and gold; and this jewel, blazing like the sun, cast its rays wide and side. — Sir Richard Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Night 17

Translations

English

Etymology

From Middle English elefant, elefaunt, from Old French elefant, elefan, olifant, re-latinized in Middle French as elephant, from Latin elephantus, from Ancient Greek ?????? (eléph?s) (gen. ????????? (eléphantos)). Believed to be derived from an Afroasiatic form such as Proto-Berber *e?u (“elephant”) (compare Tahaggart Tamahaq êlu, Tamasheq alu) or Egyptian ?bw (“elephant; ivory”). More at ivory. Replaced Middle English olifant (from the aforementioned Old French form, from Vulgar Latin *olifantus), which replaced Old English elpend (“elephant”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??l?f?nt/, /??l?f?nt/

Noun

elephant (countable and uncountable, plural elephants)

1. A mammal of the order Proboscidea, having a trunk, and two large ivory tusks jutting from the upper jaw.
2. (in particular) Any member of the family Elephantidae not also of the genus Mammuthus.
3. (figuratively) Anything huge and ponderous.
4. (paper, printing) Synonym of elephant paper
5. (Britain, childish) used when counting to add length, so that each count takes about one second

   Let's play hide and seek. I'll count. One elephant, two elephant, three elephant...

6. (uncountable, obsolete) Ivory.

   • He sent rich gifts of elephant and gold.

Synonyms

• (animal): Elephas maximus, Loxodonta africana
• (counting term): see Appendix:Words used as placeholders to count seconds

Hyponyms

• (animal): African bush elephant, African forest elephant, Indian elephant, African elephant

Derived terms

Descendants

Related terms

Translations

Further reading

• elephant on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Elephant (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• heptenal

Middle French

Noun

elephant m (plural elephans)

1. elephant (animal)

Descendants

• French: éléphant
  • Haitian Creole: elefan
  • ? Romanian: elefant
• ? Irish: eilifint
• ? Norman: êléphant, éléphant